Clokey says he underwent "a marvelous, life-changing experience" by taking LSD in supervised doses in the late 1960s. "It opened my awareness to what life is all about," he says. [...] — There's a master's thesis for someone who wants to hunt for the psychedelic influence in the shows.

There are two kinds of genius, the imitable and the inimitable. "Gumby" is a work of the second sort, the thing so completely, singularly itself, so far off down its own road, so unpredictable and odd, bizarrely constituted and eccentrically executed that there's nowhere for anyone to take it, no variations to play on the theme. He is original and inarguable, and though he has gone in and out of fashion, been parodied and abused [...] whatever insults have been done him are only further testament to his iconic power.

Robert Lloyd, "Even now, Gumby has that special dimension", Los Angeles Times (Home Edition), 9 July 2006